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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com
Search and Seizure (6th ed. 2025)
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-26,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 600,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 50,000 posts since 2003 (29,000 on WordPress as of 12/31/25) -
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Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
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"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)
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“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for
the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came
for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.”
– John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper -
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948) -
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
Website design by Wally Waller, Colorado Springs. 
Category Archives: Curtilage
IA: Officer violated Rodriguez by shifting from speeding to drugs and asking for consent which was refused
Defendant was stopped for speeding and seemed nervous. The DL was suspended. A request for consent was made and rejected. The officer completed the paperwork for the traffic stop in six minutes but spent ten minutes attempting to elicit admissions … Continue reading
NC: Boat 70′ from house wasn’t on curtilage
The officer described defendant’s boat with the drugs in it as being on the curtilage as a way to connect it to defendant to support drug possession. The facts, however, belie curtilage because it was 70′ from the house. The … Continue reading
VT: Officers would walk up lighted walkway to front door
It was reasonable for the officer to conclude that a lighted walkway to an entrance was the normal entrance to the home. Therefore, the officer didn’t violate the curtilage. The Fourth Amendment and state constitution are not absolute bars to … Continue reading
MN: Outside condo door not curtilage for dog sniff, recognizing conflict
Defendant lived in a condominium, and the management company gave the police access to the common areas for a dog sniff outside his unit’s door. The police had reasonable suspicion for the sniff. The court concludes that the area outside … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Flyover revealed MJ plants in backyard; warrantless entry violated curtilage; no exigency shown
Police in a helicopter saw a marijuana grow in defendant’s backyard. The backyard was not visible from the road. Therefore, the backyard was clearly curtilage, and the police warrantless entry into the back yard violated the Fourth Amendment. There was … Continue reading
CA7 gives an interesting historical and current summary of “the Supreme Court[‘s] … reviv[al of] a ‘property-based approach to identify unconstitutional searches.”
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the basement area of an apartment building. Neither was it curtilage. The court includes an interesting historical and current summary of “the Supreme Court[‘s] … reviv[al of] a ‘property-based approach to identify … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Officer’s presence on driveway didn’t violate curtilage
Defendant showed a reasonable expectation of privacy in his grandmother’s house because he’d been living there for years, got mail there, and had been arrested there at least twice before: It was his residence. The driveway of the house was … Continue reading
TX14: Dog sniff at apartment door was curtilage and violated Jardines
The use of a drug dog at defendant’s apartment door violated the Fourth Amendment. Defendant’s garage across the road is a different matter, but it doesn’t have to be decided. Officers showed PC for a search of defendant’s garage in … Continue reading
KS: A vehicle on the curtilage belonging at house may be searched with a SW for the “premises”
A car belonging to the house the target of a search warrant and on the curtilage at the time of execution is subject to search under a warrant for the “premises.” In this case, defendant’s son was sitting in the … Continue reading
CA7: Jardines has to apply to dog sniffs in apartment complexes
Use of a drug dog in an apartment building violated Jardines. The court can’t find any other conclusion because people of color and lower economic means are more likely to live in apartments. Kyllo was sufficiently clear on this that … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Knock-and-talk not invalid under Jardines just because officers hope to get consent to search
Knock-and-talk not invalid just because officers hope to get consent to search. They don’t violate the implied license described in Jardines by approaching the front door to talk to defendant in a knock-and-talk. United States v. Wesselhoft, 2016 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
IL: Dog sniff at an apartment’s door at 3:20 am was unreasonable under Jardines
Dog sniff at an apartment’s door at 3:20 am was unreasonable under Jardines. It was a “constitutionally protected area.” People v. Burns, 2016 IL 118973, 2016 Ill. LEXIS 281 (March 24, 2016). Officers did a knock-and-talk based on apartment neighbors’ … Continue reading
CA9: 4 am knock-and-talk violated implied license of Jardines
Officers came to defendant’s house at 4 am for a knock-and-talk to arrest him. They heard a crashing noise in the backyard and found defendant there. The subsequent search of defendant’s house was presumptively unreasonable and without any lawful justification. … Continue reading
TN: Curtilage doesn’t extend to neighborhood’s gate
Defendant lived in a partially gated community, but that didn’t mean that officers couldn’t enter through a gate that was usually open during the day. In the parking lot was defendant’s car and in plain view was property that obviously … Continue reading
CA10: “No trespassing” sign doesn’t deny implied license of a police officer to approach a house to ask questions
Even a “no trespassing” sign doesn’t deny implied license of a police officer to approach a house to ask questions of the occupant. United States v. Carloss, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 4547 (10th Cir. March 11, 2016):
NC: Jardines does not prohibit knock-and-talks
Where the notice of appeal says the defendant is appealing from the denial of the motion to suppress and not the judgment, the notice of appeal was deficient. Nevertheless, the case was taken by writ of certiorari. The police here … Continue reading
CA9: A “dilapidated” shack behind a house on the curtilage was still a place subject to the Fourth Amendment
A “dilapidated” shack behind a house on the curtilage was still a place subject to the Fourth Amendment, but the entry without a warrant claim goes forward. They get qualified immunity on the knock-and-announce violation. Deputies entered and shot a … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Warrant not required to enter curtilage to arrest defendant on his own porch
A search warrant is not required to arrest a suspect on his front porch, clearly curtilage. United States v. Soza, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23352 (D.N.M. Feb. 24, 2016). The court agonizes and discusses all the possibilities for 60+ pages … Continue reading
KY: Def’s trailer in the woods was observed from open fields; no crossing of the curtilage
KSP officers received an anonymous tip defendant was manufacturing methamphetamine on his rural property. They went to the address given to find that it was his mother’s house, and he lived down a gravel road in the woods. They went … Continue reading